State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is planning to establish mini-LNG plants to evacuate natural gas from wells situated in areas that lack pipeline connections. The company has identified five sites across Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Gujarat for the mini plants, which will be located at wellheads and convert the extracted gas into liquefied natural gas (LNG) through supercooling it to minus 160 degrees Celsius.

The LNG will then be loaded onto cryogenic trucks and transported to the nearest pipeline, where it will be reconverted into its gaseous state and injected into the network for supply to users such as power plants, fertilizer units, and city gas retailers.

According to the tender released by ONGC, the company is seeking manufacturers and service providers to utilize stranded natural gas. The identified locations for the mini-LNG plants include two sites at Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh and one site each at Ankleshwar in Gujarat, Bokaro in Jharkhand, and Cambay in Gujarat.

In the tender document, ONGC noted that although India has an extensive network of pipelines connecting supply and demand centres, a significant volume of stranded gas, which is non-connected, remains untapped. This gas is essential for enhancing domestic supplies and meeting the needs of nearby demand centres.

ONGC specified that the stranded volumes range from 5,000 to 50,000 standard cubic meters per day, which can be produced for up to five years. The tender invites bids from manufacturers and service providers to "set up a small-scale LNG plant on a BOO (build, own, and operate) basis to produce LNG, transport the produced LNG via cascades or tankers to consumption sites located within approximately 250 kilometres, depressurize and re-gasify the LNG, and then inject the gas into existing gas distribution grids or supply it directly to bulk consumers."

India produces over 90 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas, which is utilized for electricity generation, fertilizer production, conversion into CNG for automobiles, and piped into household kitchens for cooking. However, domestic production only meets around half of the demand.

ONGC, recognized as India's largest crude oil and natural gas producer, has been investing billions of dollars to increase production and reduce the country's reliance on imports. Before issuing this tender, the company entered into a partnership with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's largest fuel retailer, to establish a small-scale LNG plant near its Hatta gas field in the Vindhyan basin of Madhya Pradesh.